U.S. Government Sues Adobe for Hidden Termination Fees When Canceling Subscription

[Digital Dude]

I’ve been with Adobe since the very beginning from the early 80’s. When Creative Cloud came out I signed up, but I canceled it when it got too expensive and I only use Lightroom and Acrobat Pro. Now that I only use an iPad, I switched over to PDF Expert and retained Lightroom as a standalone product. 🤷‍♂️

 

[shpankey]

A win for the good guys.

 

[DocMultimedia]

Probably Adobe Flash (aka Macromedia Flash).

I remember there was a big stink about Flash. I still remember Macromedia Director!

I was a Director user for most of my career. I still use it every so often. Really a pity Adobe killed it.

 

[zoozx]

All companies that practice this and there are allot of them, phone companies, tv providers, etc .,should all be prosecuted with severe penalties that not only get all moneys back but severely hurt the company.
Its the only way to stop it.
Phone cues that are endless loops with long hold times the same thing.
3 min should be the MAX hold time to ever get a person on the phone to help you and solve the problem.
Its called customer support not F the customer.

 

[JungeQuex]

Protip: use Privacy.com and generate a burner credit card number with Adobe with a fixed maximum charge amount. When Adobe comes for that auto-renew or surprise termination fee it'll never go through. Also use Apple's Hide My Email when generating new Adobe accounts in case they try to blacklist your main email. 👍

Lol awesome. Modern problems require modern solutions.

 

[TooSixy]

Oh, DOJ, don't forget the other companies like ADT, Comcast, SiriusXM.

 

[reyesmac]

First of all Adobe stinks as a company, even back to the flash days when Apple had to distance themselves from them because of how bad their software was. So I expect nothing but weasel moves here. But the fix is easy, they charge the monthly rate on any trial that ends up being paid, the customer loses $30 on that deal and there are no lawsuits. I hope they get fined more than they made swindling people, thats about the only way to get these weasels to know crime doesnt pay. But when you are this big paying huge fines is still cheaper than doing the right thing so who knows where it'll end up. There should be laws that cover this sort of thing for all subscription services. You pay a month, you cancel in that month you don't pay any more, period. You cancel a year subscription early, the fee should not exceed the price of the regular month payments up to that month of cancelation. Simple, clear, non weasel terms.

 

[vladi]

Adobe's a cancer!

 

[vladi]

I shared Steve Jobs hate of Adobe. They've always thrown up their hands and wondered why everyone pirates their software.

They've turned the blind eye on piracy because that was their strategy to gain market share. They can't care less if you as a freelancer use warez version of their app but if you if you want to turn that into a studio with more seats then they gonna come after you.

One not to mess with is Foundry (Nuke, Mari, etc). If you use scene release and then suddenly you decide to you want to pay for it while its installed on the same hardware, they will issue you the bill for all that time you used the pirated version. Don't mess with them.

 

[jlc1978]

3 min should be the MAX hold time to ever get a person on the phone to help you and solve the problem.
Its called customer support not F the customer.

Except no customer wants to pay what it would cost to provide that level of service. The only way to get that is to be far enough on the profit meter to get access to their special customer support numbers.

 

[rjohnstone]

I miss the days when you actually bought the software. Being locked into a subscription just to USE software is absurd.
If you wanted to upgrade, you paid for the upgrade, but if you were happy with what you had, you could pretty much use it for as long as you wanted.
I have TWO CC subscription because we NEED Adobe Lightroom and PS on multiple computers, but I really wish you could just buy a license and call it a day.

 

[NagasakiGG]

The EU parliament and regulators are notably free trade capitalists and the union was formed to allow rich people and corporations to move around freely, take advantage of cheap immigrant labour, allow oligarchs to launder their money and buy golden passports. There's nothing lefty about it.

Here we go, the undereducated American has taken the bait.

 

[justperry]

I’ve always found them to be evil, for instance, it’s one of the few that don’t adhere to OS X/macOS standards, an app should contain almost all files except for preferences and support files in Folders like Application support/Extensions or daemons, but not Adobe, it’s like a virus, puts **** everywhere and phones home too much.

 

[aleksander]

adobe is less relevant today, thankfully.

Less but not completely. There's still a huge gap between some of their apps and the closest competition.

 

[organisum]

Like going after Al Capone for tax evasion.

Always used the, pay monthly, option. Was never dumb enough to fall for the shifty, monthly (paid anally), approach.

 

[organisum]

Like going after Al Capone for tax evasion.

Always used the, pay monthly, option. Was never dumb enough to fall for the shifty, monthly (paid anally), approach. Just to save $5 a year. 😆

 

[sfwalter]

Good hopefully it teaches Adobe .

Sadly it won't. They will just meet the bare minium to maintain their bottom line.

 

[canonical]

Well done to DOJ - I have found their cancellation process to be ensnaring and this suit is fully justified.

 

[mpuk]

"Adobe even has a whole help page because of the confusing nature of its subscription." 😂

This is the first clue that you need to re-design your subscription plan instead of having a whole page trying to explain how it work.

This is part of the intended design. Confusion deployed as a form of deception, the deception being one of the tools used to exploit their customers.

 

[Tevos]

Adobe for years is gangrenous wound of the Internet. Good that US DoJ getting involved with those scammers. (I never pay for subscriptions)

Fortunately a lot/everything of this stuff can be replaced.

Probably the only piece of Adobe suite which is mandatory industry-wise is the Substance Painter/Designer. At least in this case there is an option to use stand-alone license by buying it on Steam (only for individuals) if you're not interested in updates - and there was nothing worth upgrading since 2020 at least.

 

[AbSoluTc]

Is it just me or does Apple‘s new Siri icon look like creative cloud?

I thought this when I saw it. I was like interesting, looks like creative cloud.

 

[Sevendaymelee]

Like all things, there should be a pay-once option and then ownership. Subscriptions are fine as options, but should not be the only one.

 

[bousozoku]

I got away from Photoshop around 2005, when they were switching to Creative Suite. Raw file processing became much better with Capture One Pro. Now, there are so many options that unless you're working for a Print House, you don't need Adobe products.

When they introduced subscriptions, it seemed as though everything would go the wrong way.

 

[Makosuke]

I think this came from a Louis Rossmann video, but it should be law that cancelling a contract must be equally as easy as entering into it (or easier). You want someone to spend 30 minutes on the phone, asking 20 times whether they really want to cancel? That’s totally fine as long as the only way to sign up is a 30 minute phone call where the sales rep spends the entire phone call trying to convince you not to buy it.

Ooh, I like that strategy. Would be impossible to enforce, but should absolutely be how it works:

"You cannot sign up for Adobe Creative Cloud online, please call the number below to sign up."
"Yes, we can absolutely sign you up for Adobe Creative Cloud, but first, have you considered not signing up for Adobe Creative Cloud? It costs $60 per month, and you would pay nothing if you don't sign up."
"That's great, we will get you signed up then, but first, have you considered not signing up? The $60 per month plan is only for an annual contract, it will cost you 50% more if you pay monthly with the option to cancel at any time."
"Okay, then, before I process your new account, have you considered just signing up for Photoshop? If that's all you need, a Photoshop subscription alone is considerably cheaper than the whole Creative Cloud suite."

Peripherally related, I have done business with online stores (mostly in Japan) that make it hilariously difficult and complex to give them money. At least twice in the last year I literally had to give up and shop elsewhere because no matter what I did they would not take my money.

 

[Marx55]

Adobe does not get it. Subscription is a deal breaker. No way! Why? Subscription could have worked when it started with one or a few applications, but with many applications now is a deal braker! No more subscriptions!